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LEAFLETS during Russian Revolution
A collection of Leaflets 1905 - 1917
partly from “The Voice of the Great Revolution” (in Russian) the book consists of leaflets published by the Bolshevik Party from
February 1917 to November 1920
‘Soldiers, take power into your own hands!’
‘Your representatives and worker deputies should become the people’s Provisional Revolutionary Government.’
March 14 , 1917,
( the Social Democratic Interdistrict Committee (Mezhrayonka), supported by the Petersburg Committee of Socialist-
Revolutionaries, issued the following appeal to soldiers)
Comrade soldiers!
It has come to pass! You enslaved peasants and workers arose, and with a crash the autocratic government collapsed in disgrace.
Soldiers! The people were patient for a long time. The peasants long suffered under the power of the gentry landowners, the land captains, the district police officers, and the whole gang of servants of the tsarist autocracy. Millions of peasants became swollen from hunger while the State Treasury, the monasteries, and the landowners seized all the land, and while the nobles got fat from sucking the people’s blood. Without land, the peasant cannot even put his chickens out to feed!
Brother soldiers!
As peasants, as workers, what do you need? All the land and full freedom – that is what you need! You did not shed your blood in vain. For two days Petrograd has been under the power of soldiers and workers. It has been two days since the dissolved State Duma elected a Provisional Committee, which it calls a Provisional Government. Still, you have not heard a word from [M.V.] Rodzianko [Duma chair] or [P.N.] Miliukov [Kadet Party leader and Provisional Committee spokesman] about whether the land will be taken from the gentry landowners and given to the people.
The prospects are poor!
Soldiers! Be on your guard to prevent the nobles from deceiving the people!
Go ask the Duma, will the people will have land, freedom, and peace?
Moises Uritsky 1873-1918, leader of Mezhrayonka
Soldiers! Why does the Duma say nothing about this? Autocratic arbitrariness needs to be completely uprooted. The people’s cause will perish unless we conclude the business by convening the Constituent Assembly, to which all peasants and all workers would send their deputies – not like in the current Duma, composed of the wealthy and highest ranks of society, which dooms the people’s cause!
Take power into your hands, so that this Romanov gang of nobles and officers does not deceive you. Elect your own platoon, company, and regiment commanders. Elect company committees for managing food supplies. All officers should be under the supervision of these company committees.
Accept only those officers whom you know to be friends of the people.
Obey only delegates sent from the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies!
Soldiers! Now, when you have arisen and achieved victory, those coming to join you include not only friends but also officers, who are former enemies and who only pretend to be your friends.
Soldiers! We are more afraid of the fox’s tail [intrigues] than the wolf’s tooth [outright aggression]. Only the workers and peasants are your true friends and brothers. Strengthen your unity with them! Send your delegate-representatives to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, already supported by 250,000 workers in Petrograd alone. Your representatives and worker deputies should become the people’s Provisional Revolutionary Government. It will give you both land and freedom!
David Riazanov 1870-1938, leader of Mezhrayonka
Soldiers, listen to us! Demand an answer from the Duma right now. Will it take land from the gentry landowners, State Treasury, and monasteries? Will it transfer land to the peasants? Will it give the people complete freedom? Will it convene the Constituent Assembly? Don’t waste time!
Soldiers! Talk about this in your companies and battalions! Hold meetings! Elect from among you commanders and representatives to the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
All land to the peasants!
All freedom to the people!
Long live the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies!
Long live the Provisional Revolutionary Government!
Petersburg Interdistrict Committee of the RSDRP
Petersburg Committee of Socialist Revolutionaries
March 1917
Published in A.G. Shlyapnikov, Semnadtsatyi god, volume 1, 1923, pp. 337-338.